Social media has become part of most people’s daily routine. Wake up, check Facebook and Snapchat; make coffee, scroll through Instagram. Time to cook dinner? Time for Pinterest. Want to vent, head to Twitter. Going to bed – why not stay up for 2 gratuitous hours going from link to link on YouTube. Seeing how dependent we’ve become on social media, it’s unlikely for someone to go more than a few hours (and in many cases, minutes) without checking one of the many, if not all.

With social media addictions comes a more distracted audience. Commercial breaks turn into phone breaks. Advertising, and selling, on consumers favorite social sites may be the best way to reach distracted eyes. With a more targeted approach, brands shouldn’t just be heading online – they should be heading directly for the newsfeed. Here’s why:

1. Buy Buttons: Within the last year, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest have added buy and shop buttons to their interface. Mobile shopping has rapidly increased and around 1/3 of online shopping now occurs on mobile. With the new buy buttons implemented on suggested and branded posts, it makes it much easier for a consumer to turn a “like” into a purchase.

2. We live on our phones: In a day and age where some of us are on our phones more than we sleep, and when we do sleep it’s next to our phones, it makes sense to move to mobile. College students spend almost 8 hours a day on their phones, meaning that while they’re awake you can likely reach them on mobile. Almost 80% of internet traffic now occurs on mobile, taking the lead from desktops and laptops. Online browsing on phones has become a filler for when we’re commuting, waiting for our morning coffee, or just plain uncomfortable. Smartphones are with us wherever we go, and it’s the place where most people are reading their feeds.

3. Visually Appealing: Most social media is set up as a visual platform, which is an ideal format for displaying retail advertising. An interesting product image will catch the consumer’s eye, and stand out against the everyday status updates. Creating branded and relatable posts on social media will make the ads less “ad like” and more like a cool story on their newsfeed. Relating to consumers on the interface they understand may help ads be noticed rather than avoided.

4. It’s Native: Reach them where they’re already going. 74% of those online have and use social media, and nearly 3 hours a day is spent on all of the different sites or apps. Each site can also provide insight on the users likes and interests, clicks, searches, etc. With this information, advertisers can create a more targeted approach and hopefully a more relatable one as well.

Furman Roth

Furman Roth has been a pioneer of integrated advertising services since our inception. Our first claim to fame – the famous and now iconic Krazy Glue “Hanging Man” – put us on the map. Since then, we’ve gone on to become major players in the ad industry and we’ve been creating success stories and growth for our clients.